Regards, Ivan
Posted on 05/01/2003 5:51:28 PM PDT by MadIvan
China has mobilised its grassroots Communist Party army, setting up barricades of trees, lorries and wooden barriers in rural areas in a desperate attempt to control the spread of Sars.
All around the capital, Beijing, village party committees have been given the responsibility of ensuring that their communities remain Sars-free, a duty taken up with relish by many who have sealed themselves off with roadblocks.
The effects were noticeable everywhere on the May Day holiday yesterday, with streets empty and most people who had not already fled the city seeming to have put off plans for holiday breaks.
The death figure climbed by 11 to 170 and the number of infections rose by 187 to 3,638. A further 1,400 people were placed under enforced quarantine, bringing the total in the capital to almost 13,000.
Tiananmen Square was all but deserted. Street vendors said the last time it was this quiet was after the massacre of democracy protesters in 1989 when martial law was imposed.
In towns, officials in charge of schools and other communal buildings have been told they will be held personally responsible if there is an outbreak on their patch.
There are some signs that the mass shutdown of normal life - from roads to sports venues, schools to karaoke bars - is now thought to have gone too far.
The government has ordered roads to be left open and only the sick to be stopped from going through. One main road dug up by an official with mechanical diggers was repaired by the public security bureau.
While Hong Kong, Singapore and Toronto have faced up to Sars in their own ways, China's method, to prevent both the disease and the fear it has brought about, is described in old-fashioned party terminology.
It is a reminder that whatever the crisis within the party caused by the humiliating international revelation of the scale of its cover-up of the disease, its outward form is still omnipresent.
"The public must be mobilised to build a universal network to battle Sars, and the sub-district offices, neighbourhood and village committees play an important role," said one document published this week.
A quick tour of rural areas around the capital showed the nature of that mobilisation.
On side tracks from the main roads, barricades had been set up - trees, lorries, wooden barriers - to prevent outsiders coming in. At the village of Dadaozhang, three local committee members were manning an earthwork built across the road.
"Anyone coming from outside has to register with the committee, then go to the village clinic to have their temperature taken," said one. "We don't want the disease coming in."
At a road junction, The Telegraph's car was stopped by police. They were friendly, directing the car to be sprayed with disinfectant and its occupants to two nurses with thermometers.
On the outskirts of Beijing the village of Houshayu was bustling in the spring sunshine. Locals stocked up with fruit from the market before queueing at the barricade into the village.
"Who are you going to see? Where is your residence permit? asked four middle-aged women. "What's in your bag?" It is a great opportunity for snoops, but that is precisely the success of the committee network.
One measure dreamed up by Beijing's acting mayor was to issue thermometers to every household. Village heads would be expected to know the temperature of every resident, he said.
But Houshayu hadn't got its thermometers yet, said one of the four, so each party member in the village of about 800-1,000 people had been allocated seven or eight families to check up on.
Another woman sprayed every bicycle and motorcycle with disinfectant. Another of the women said they had been assigned the job by the village collective.
The experts agree that quick reporting and health checks on travellers are all essential to stopping Sars.
Regards, Ivan
Already been done...Mysterious barricades from Francious Couperan (sp?)
See we are wearing our little masks,
Going about our daily tasks,
Hoping the baracades will keep the SARS bug away...
La La la la.....
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